Post Modernism

This reading starts with Angela McRobbie's quote on post modernism. She says Postmodernism has entered into a diverse number of vocabularies. The recent debates on Postmodernism are positive attraction and its usefulness to analyse popular culture. Postmodernism is described as what comes after modernism. This reading analyses the positives and negatives of postmodernism.  It has become the 'buzz word'. This seems to have a lot of meanings connotative to it.

There are three post modern aspects. Susan Sontag and Leslie fielder found it to be 'new sensibility'. In 1960, postmodernism shocked and disgusted the middle class.Thus, as Jamenson said, as there was the shift from opposition to hegemonic position of the classics of modernism,the people conquered the university,art galleries and museum.The most important consequence of the new sensibility is the abandonment of Mathew Arnold's theory. Where the claim he did between the three different classes stands less meaningful.

This theory also rejected Arnold's 'best of what is thought and said' and preferred Raymond Williams's 'whole way of life'. The example he uses to explain this is the British and the American pop.While considering pop, Andrew Warhol is a key theorist mentioned of pop art in this reading. This explains how the commercial art was considered as a 'real art' as this was chosen by the ruling class. Objecting Warhol's merging of popular art and the elitism John Rockwell says, 'Art is what we perceive as art'.

Lyotard one of the theorists had his particular focus on the status of function of scientific discourse and knowledge. He explains how the postmodern pedagogy would teach us how to use the knowledge as a form of cultural and economic capital.

One of the most famous postmodern theory is Best and Kellner's theory. Baulliard says 'How it is not possible to seperate the economic and productive realm from the ideologies of culture'.He suggests that postmodern culture is of 'simulacrum' where there is very little or no difference between the copy and the original.

Totally this was a slightly confusing text for me. I couldn't figure out whether post modernism is considered to be good or bad from the text.

Structuralism and Post Structuralism

Reading Response (Week 3):

             In this reading, we get to understand clearly, what is structuralism. This has descriptions of Post structuralism from various theorists like Saussure,Barthes, Foucault,and many more.

            Firstly, Saussure divides language into two parts, Signifier and the signified. These combination of them forms the sign. He also mentions that the relationship between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary. The sign together constitutes the meaning. He explains this idea by illustrating it with various examples of traffic lights, dog, etc.
         He points out words like syntagmatic axis which represents the horizontal axis where there are possibilities of combination of words to infer the meaning. Paradigmatic axis, the vertical axis, that represents the functional contrasts. He says "A sign can enter into Paradigmatic relations which can occur in same context but not at same time". The meaning of a sentence is formed by the combination of these paradigmatic and syntagmatic axes. In this discussion he adds that language plays a significant role in shaping what constitutes the reality of material world. He then introduces a new term Myths where the materials in the world are divided into categories.

           Will Wright, one of the theorists disagrees with the point made by Levi Strauss  a french theorist, by saying, "Structuralism is not to reveal a mental structure, but to show how myths of  a society, communicates a conceptual order to its members".  He quotes an example of Hollywood western which is divided into three, the Classic, the transition and the professional. The movie Dances with wolves, represents the transition theme as this anticipates the new social values in the system.

           Ronald Barthes argues that there are two levels of signification. The Primary and the Secondary level. Where the Primary level of signification denotes the natural meaning and Secondary level is he level where connotative meaning comes into existence. He illustrates this with an example from Paris magazine, with a picture of "a black soldier saluting French flag".

            Post Structuralism as described in the book rejects the idea of underlying structure upon which the meanings can rest secure and guaranteed. It says that this process is more complex than explained.

            Finally this reading concludes with the description of discourse by Michel Foucault. He says that discourse works in three ways, to enable, to constrain and to constitute. He also explains how knowledge and power imply each other. The interesting part was about the Panopticon, which can be described by these lines, "the whole social body into a field of perception". He illustrates how modern TV shows like Big Brother and some magazines like Reveal,Closer,Heat work with this phenomenon and are considered as a part of entertainment.

The Culture Industry - Enlightenment of Mass Deception

Reading Response: (Week 3)

                Adorno and Max Horkheimer, in this reading, discuss on the term 'Culture industry'. In this he explains how the people are kept under the control of capitalists and how they are not allowed to act with any individuality. They exclaim that in this era of mechanization and industrialization culture stands all same and identical. Films,Radio are no longer considered to be a art. The cultural economies produce products according to the customer demands. The power is not given to the people and that technology acquires more power over the society. They state that development of radio to television clearly portrays the authoritative nature and also subjects this to discussion over the welcoming attitude of public. They also mention that the culture monopolies are weak and are dependent on the economic power which holds them. As they discuss this further deep, they add that there is no room left for the consumer to imagine and if films are taken into consideration all the reactions which should have been spontaneous are also spoon-fed into them.

        With the term 'Culture industry' they proposed that 'popular culture' is completely related to standardized cultural goods like film,radio,television,magazine etc. These tend to manipulate the society and also put them to passivity. They add that the products which are produced always undergo a set of standardization and also all films hit a cliche point which are never interchangeable.  There is a clear illusion and the public is under the domination of capitalist communities. They call culture as a 'Paradoxical commodity'.

             What I feel about the views of Adorno and Horkheimer is that, the people are all kept under the mirage that they are being offered what they want, but then we generally don't quite feel that we are influenced by the power in some or the other way.

         
{Adorno, Theodor and Horkhemier, Max (1997) The Dialectic of Enlightenment. London: Verso}

'Sweetness and Light'

The media text in which I find sweetness and light are the shows covered by Discovery science. All the shows which are being broadcasted in discovery science explain science in a simple way and its a way of experimental learning too.

The best of the shows are 'Destroyed in seconds','Incredible India','Man vs Wild' and many more. The reason of why I chose Discovery Science as a media text that offers me Sweetness and Light is because it is the one that I consider as a network that provides 'the best that is thought'. Discovery network on the whole also produces various programmes that showcase and analyze different cultures that are prevalent in the society. They just deal with everything from the food, dressing, art, literature, institutions etc and explain every bit of it from the past to the future.

These sort of programmes being telecasted carry more value in them. The efforts that they put in each of their broadcast in making the viewer understand every concept being experimented are appreciable. So as these programmes, I find them very informative and  a fun way of analyzing different cultures and tradition. These shows provide 'Sweetness and Light' because these impart knowledge and also take culture to a higher level.Not only culture oriented broadcasts but their also exists various scientific programmes that are experimented on-cam and which bring out the excitement and spirit of watching the show over and over again.This is why 'Discovery science' offers 'sweetness and light' for me.

In shows that cover culture like 'Incredible India' portrays the life people led in olden times. The ease of access to a variety of shows that provide you entertainment and knowledge and makes you cultured is what Discovery perfectly describes. 

Mass civilization and minority culture- F.R. Leavis

Reading Response (Week 2)

        Leavis seems to have a different approach to culture. He mentions that there exist a small minority, though a significant one, who are capable of presenting an unprompted, intellectual, first hand judgement. He states and believes that culture is at its crisis.

         He makes his point clear that the developments in technology and industrialization has been pulling many families apart from their circle and this also destroys the 'High culture' and also illustrates it with an example how in Middletown families were affected due to the rise in automobile sectors. He feels that it has been accelerating and intensifying in the past. He clearly mentions that Americanization is the only cause which has been destroying the culture in films and also in literature.

         Leavis presents before us the fact that in Shakespeare's time how his texts were not considered as a high-brow culture as they were written for dramas and plays and with this he shows it paralleled to nowadays scenario.

         He concludes by quoting that 'It is vain to console us with the promise of mass culture as it is utterly new'. Even though we can argue that mass culture is better than losing the culture, he refrains it is futile.

Culture and Anarchy- Mathew Arnold

 Reading Response(Week 2):

       
        In this reading, Arnold defines culture as a way to get out of the present difficulties that mankind faces and also mentions that everyone should be able to receive the 'best which has been thought and said'. He also says that culture will create a stream of fresh thoughts and ideas over the things which we are staunchly following. Adding to this, he points out that the books which does not allow the fresh stream of thoughts are considered to be futile.

        The main idea that he tries to feed through this is that, the 'social idea' where with the modern spirit, we should try to bring in equality among the masses. He also talks about three different classes and how culture works differently for all kinds of people. The different classes as he mentions are, Barbarians- the high class,aristocracy; Philistines- middle class,Populace-lower class.

        He also specifically uses an idiom "Sweetness and Light" when he talks about culture, as he says culture has a passion for sweetness and light. The term stands imperfect if it doesn't reach the un-kindled masses. These are the marked happy moments in one's life. In my opinion this can be achieved when we become culture and when their exists perfection as denoted by Arnold.

        He concludes by saying that culture is needed to repress anarchy and it is the most resolute enemy of anarchy.

♫♥♫ What’s my culture? ♫♥♫ - Tiffanatic !

There was quite a bit of difficulty for me in defining my culture. But after some quick thoughts I was about to end up the struggle with only that person to whose culture I belong. Music is something that can kindle your emotions and passion. When you look closely, the kind of music you listen to defines you as a person.

The media text I chose is a music album ‘So Alive’ by Tiffany Alvord, a shining YouTuber, singer, vlogger who just started her career by posting videos in YouTube. She composes songs in all genres from melody to punk. But as a lover of music I think she is the best person I can ever think off. Apart from music, her pleasing personality and kind nature is the one that makes me relate more to her.  Her songs and covers are released in her channel and one of my favorites is called ‘So Alive’ one of her latest albums. 

I can associate to her songs and her way of life more as she is also a student and my life and her life revolves in quite similar circles. But another factor that attracts me more to her songs is that she is a flash of hope for anyone as she just started her career by posting random music videos and now with her passion, love, and affinity towards music has brought her into limelight. Most of her songs are uplifting, enchanting and more. She has been an inspiration to kindle my passion for music. So this is how I define the particular media text for my culture.

Raymond Williams – Analysis of culture (1961)

 Reading Response (Week 1):
  
        In this reading, Raymond Williams has categorized culture into three ways and has explained about the analysis of culture in these three types.

 *‘Ideal’- Where he defines culture as a state or process of Human perfection under a certain set of universal values to denote a timeless order.

 *‘Documentary’- Where culture is defined as a recorded form of intellectual and imaginative works by recording the thoughts and experiences. It can be related and is very similar to the ideal analysis denoted as discovery of ‘the best that has been thought and written in the world’

 *‘Social’-Where culture is designated as a particular way of life. This not only consists of the art and learning but also the ordinary behavior and institution.

He also mentions that there is no neat definition for culture as such and discusses about the problems in taking into account any one of those completely. To illustrate this he uses the example of the play ‘Antigone of Sophocles’ elaborating on the reverence and Kommos that the play deals with. The reading revolves around the lines that culture varies with different time periods and generations. “We never talk quite the same language”. There always exists some difference in style, speech and behavior. ‘Structures of feeling’ is a term that William uses based on the cultural artifacts. This promotes the general idea that any new generation would have its own structure of feeling which will not appear to have come from anywhere.  It also stresses on the fact that every culture belongs to a particular time period. Selective tradition employed in analyzing the culture should always follow the lines of growth of a society. Thus if more actively worked upon, the true value of culture can be viewed clearly and could be related to the whole organization within which it was expressed.